This enormous complex construction (50 hectares) compound of palaces, gardens and lake was erected by two architects of emperor Nero, Severus and Celerus, after the fire of Rome in 64 A.D. and expanded from the slopes of the Celian and Palatine till the Oppian and Esquiline Hills. The main part of the palace was on the site of the Palazzo di Tiberio e Caligola on the Palatine Hill; the gardens with the lake were in the valley now occupied by the Colosseum. Immediately after the death of tyrant, to who the fire of Rome was assigned, the huge area that was occupied by his patrimony was restored to the city.

In 72 Vespasian obliterated the lake to build the Colosseum; Domitian built on the site of the buried palace on the Palatine his own palaces; Trajan destroyed the houses on the Oppian to build his baths; Hadrian built his Temple of Venus and Rome on the place of the vestibule, where formerly the statue of Nero stood, and moved it in front of the Colosseum.

The remains of the Domus Aurea include a nymphaeum, with the vault mosaics, and a long cryptoporticus decorated with grotesques.

Because of its underground position, the halls of the palace were explored as the caves or grottoes by the Renaissance artists (Pinturicchio, Ghirlandaio, G.da Udine), who imitated the strange paintings and forms of vegetables and animals found here in their own works, and gave the name to this kind of artistic style "grotesques" (it. "grottesche").

The famous group Laocoon was found here in the 16th century (now in Vatican Museums). Most of the rooms of the Domus Aurea had fresco, stucco and mosaic decorations.